The Swap-Penny Jackson and the Master of Magic
by OnAngelWings
Summary: What would happen if almost all of the PJO crew switched genders? And maybe some godly parents? And a entirely different quest! I'll tell you what would happen: This story. Follow Penny, Alex, and Hunter as they set off on a whole new adventure in a alternate universe-with a new nemesis as old as time itself...
1. Prologue

**The Swap, or Why the PJO characters NEED to stay their own genders and the hilarity that may ensue if they don't, or Penny Jackson and the Master of Magic.**

**Phew, that was long!**

**Let's just call it The Swap, huh?**

Terence and Lucy raced through the dark wasteland. Shadows jumped out of every corner, every alley, as if saying, '_We're coming._' And being who they were, Terence and Lucy knew the shadows were coming for them.

Then Lucy heard something.

_Cough._

"Terennnncee…" she said uneasily. Terence stopped, staring at her with narrowed electric blue eyes. "What?"

"I think there's something over there."

"Luce, this is called an abandoned car plant for a reason. Let's go."

"Not until I find out what it is." Lucy set her jaw.

Terence sighed. Then he heard the cough too.

It was small, and from that Terence knew the person was small.

_Cough._

After a cough followed a moan, and then a small sob. Terence felt nauseated..and saddened.

"Let's move." He whispered. They crept towards the cough.

There was a old, worn down shack at the end of the alley. It was mossing over, and looked like whatever had been in there died long ago. Yet they heard a cough, from the heart of the shack.

"One, two," counted Lucy under her breath.

"THREE!" yelled Terence, ripping off the door to the shack.

There cowered a little blond boy that was obviously in need of a medic. Deep gashes ran along his leg and his eyes were wide with delirium.

"Stay back!" he yelled , brandishing a bit of a broken glass. "I know you're all monsters!"

"Listen up kid, we're not-" Terence began, but Lucy interrupted. "We're not monsters. I'm Lucy Castellan and this is Terence Grace. What's your name?"

The blond boy shivered. "A-Alex Chase."

Lucy grinned. "Here." She handed him one of her extra knives. "It's not great, but it works a heck of a lot better than broken glass." Alex accepted the knife with shaking hands.

"Now let's get those cuts of yours healed up."

And so Alex joined the group of ragtag misfits, and proceeded to become an excellent fighter and monster-killer. In a few months, after several battles and scars, they find a satyr claiming to need to take them to a place safe for people 'like them' as he said.

The only reason they believed him was because Lucy was claimed by Hermes right that second.

Time moves on and we find Terence, son of Zeus, Lucy, daughter of Hermes, and Alex, son of Athena, fighting for their lives on Half-Blood Hill. Terence, in the last moments of his life, is turned into a pine tree and the monsters flew back, shocked by the border lines, reinforced by his spirit. Alex and Lucy collapse, from their labors and from the shock of the fate of their friend.

But here we are, with the start of a new time-the Era of Demigods. But there can be only one to reign…..

**A/N In case you hadn't figured it out:**

**Terence:Thalia**

**Alex:Annabeth**

**Lucy:Luke**

**Penny:Percy**

**Lucy: *pops up out of nowhere *HI ONANGELWINGS DOES NOT OWN PJO! *vanishes ***

**Me: Ummmm**

**NOTE: IF THE CHARACTER IS NOT HUMAN-i.e. Grover-THEY WILL NOT BE AFFECTED BY THE SWAP. I AM LEAVING SOME PEOPLE THE SAME SO IF WILL STAYS WILL DON'T SAY I DIDN'T TELL YOU.**

**Please read and review! Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 1- In which I battle Snakezilla

**A/N Time for the beginning of the Penny Jackson story! You've already seen the setup….but you haven't seen the outcome. Disclaimer: Like Cassandra Clare, Rick Riordan is cooler than me. Why? I don't own Percy Jackson or his universe. **

**Chapter 1 In which I battle Snakezilla**

**Penny POV**

Hey, half-bloods of the world. You ready for this? I know I sure am not, and I'm telling the story! Ahem. Okay. So it all started on October first. I was doodling.

I liked to doodle on all of my papers-I was ADHD and it helped me concentrate. Today the doodles were of a boy-in my head, he had black hair and green eyes. Yesterday it was all a girl with light blonde hair and gray eyes. But today-the boy was everywhere in my head. Then I realized something was going on outside of my head. Our English teacher, Mrs. Kirk, was yelling at me. Again.

"Penny! What is wrong with you?"

"Hmmmm?"

"You're not even paying attention!" she shouted, her ugly nose topped with glasses filling my vision. I could smell the sandwich she'd had for lunch on her foul breath . Ugh.

I thought about voicing all of this. Instead I said, "Yes, Mrs. Kirk."

Days like these I wonder if she just added the 'r' into her title to make herself seem more professional.

"Penny!" she shouted once more, then slapped me across the face.

My head was twisted sharply to the side. I slowly placed my hand on my cheek. I thought I saw something go blue. _Oh no_. You know the expression I saw red? Well, when I get angry, my vision goes blue. Completely blue. Some girls once told me that my eyes turned all blue too, but I didn't believe them.

"Oh, I know you did not just do that." I said slowly. Then the world went electric, and I was half blinded by the fact the filter in my eyes was blocking the red. I blinked, and it went down a bit. I felt the room temperature drop about four degrees. "Isn't that right?" my voice had tripled, and I thought I saw two people standing beside me, made of swirling blue sparks. Then my vision cleared more, and there was only one.

Mrs. Kirk growled almost ferally at me. Then she exploded.

A giant snake-monster thing roars where whe was standing. It made a fist with talons in, and punched the ground. A huge rift in the earth appeared, and the cracks spread towards my feet.

"Oh. Crap."

It swatted aside a girl's desk, crashing her into the wall, and knocked over a boy's chair, which he hopped out of and ran sceaming to the bathroom. Meanwhile, the rest of our class stood paralyzed, Mrs. Kirk stood behind me stuttering like no tomorrow, and I was standing in front of that thing with nothing but glowing eyes and maybe a box of Tic Tacs. No, actually they were Mentos. Silly Penny, there's a difference!

I grabbed the spear prop from our Shakespeare play and brandished it at it. I yelled, and threw the spear. It bounced harmlessly off its hide. It screeched and blew flames from its tongue.

"Lovely." I muttered.

Suddenly there was a flash of gold and a boy about twelve, my age, was using a sword to hack into the Snakezilla hide. "Lemons!" he yelled.

I put a hand on my hip. "Excuse me?"

"Citrus kills it! Lemons!"

Snakezilla burped, and I realized it had eaten Blondie's knife. It was almost comical, because the knife did not seem to be agreeing with Snakezilla, who burped again.

Blondie leapt to the stuffed stag's head adorning the area above the SmartBoard and yanked hard on the antlers. Two knives came out of the top. He tossed one to me, keeping one for himself, and kept hacking away at the monsters hide. I fumbled with the knife, trying not to cut myself on the sharp end. It was unlike any hunting knife I'd ever seen-it was long, dark bronze with a strange light about it, and wickedly sharp. But that wasn't what I needed to defeat Snakezilla.

Citrus. That's what kills it.

I didn't have any time to ask Blondie if artificial flavoring worked. I dug around in my pocket…and found what I was looking for.

I vaulted over an upturned desk and fell hard to Snakezilla's nose, sliding down the sleek scales. When Blondie got too close and Snakezilla opened its mouth to blast him, I shook the entire canister of Lemonade Mentos gum inside.

The monster exploded into yellow dust, crumbling into the wind. I fell off the powder that was formerly Snakezilla's nose and hurtled towards the ground at fifty miles per second. I fell into the boy's arms. "Hi." I said awkwardly.

He dumped me on the ground. "Hi." His gray eyes were intense, like he was analyzing my every move.

I reached my hand up, partially for assistance and partially for manners. "Penny Jackson."

He helped me up, a tight grip on my hand. "Alex Chase."

I heard a distant roar, like Snakezilla was trying to come back. Alex tensed. He gulped, then grabbed my wrist. "We need to get you to camp."

**A/N**

**Okay, so I know what you're all wondering-is Penny a daughter of Poseidon? I will answer that question now- no. What fun would that be? Please Read and Review!**


	3. Chapter 2-Pegasus Ride

**Disclaimer:**

**Alex: *jumping up from behind my computer* PJO BELONGS TO RICK RIORDAN! NOT ME!**

**Me: Or me.**

**Alex: Well, that too. Hey, is this the chapter when *is tackled and gagged by an invisible force***

**Me: *clears throat* Ummm….on with the chapter!**

**Chapter 2: In which Alex falls off a Pegasus…while airborne **

**Alex POV**

Who was this kid?

You have to have a pretty strong half-blood scent to attract a Titanoboa, and some pretty good luck to have killed it with a canister of lemonade Mentos. Right now, she and I and I were at a Meijers, trying to find more. Well, she was while I was trying to tell her what was going on.

She rifled through the aisle candy. "You've got to be kidding me! NO lemonade ones? Wow…the one day I throw mine into the gullet of an enormous snake monster, they run out…."

"Listen, Pippi-"

"Penny."

"Yeah. That too. We need to get you to camp. Like now. Or else the titanoboa, or something worse might come back."

"No it won't. I killed it with my amazing skills."

I scoffed. "Yeah. Dumping gum into a mouth as big as a football field is now considered skills?"

Penny ignored me as she pushed aside a mound of peppermints, delving her hand into the Halloween cauldron. Her face lit up. "Score!" She pulled out a blue canister like her lemonade one, but it was full of blue mints. "Dang. Spearmint. You don't suppose spearmint acts like lemonade, huh?"

I seized her arm. "Come on, Perla."

"Penny!"

"Who cares?"

Then in the parking lot, we had an argument on running the rest of the way, ending up with Silly String in my hair, food coloring turning half of Penny's face green and us riding on Azure, the extra pegasus from camp. Penny had her arms crossed behind me.

"It's your fault." She muttered darkly.

"No, I'm not the one who grabbed the Silly String from that customer's cart and yelled, 'WE'RE TAKING A CAB!', now am I?"

"Shut up!"

"After you, idiot."

Penny's jaw hung open. I was afraid I had gone too far. Then she snapped it shut, but her eyes began to glow pure blue. "Idiot?" she asked quietly. A storm- spirit thing appeared behind her, made of swirling blue sparks. The spirit flew towards me, feet not even touching the clouds. It swiped its hand at me, and I blacked out.

**Penny POV**

Alex closed his eyes and fell.

Once the blue faded from my eyes, I saw he had fallen again, by my brain barely comprehended it. "Down, Azure!" I yelled, spurring the Pegasus in its side. Azure whinnied some very nasty horse language at me and dove down. I reached out my fingers and snagged the fabric on the back of his shirt. "Alex!" I screeched over the wind. "Can you hear me?"

He mumbled something.

"Okay." I sighed, but then heard something else.

"Uhhhhhhhh?"

"Shut up."

"Okey-doodles,"

And Azure flew us the rest of the way to camp with me dragging a half-conscious kid through the cloud bank the entire way.

Alex came to around the time we reached what he was calling camp.

As soon as we landed, a blonde haired girl came running up to him. She was around seventeen, and she looked worried about him. Her brown eyes stood out against her pale skin, and her nametag read, HI, MY NAME IS LUCY!

"What did you do to him!" she shouted, startling half the camp. A couple of other campers ran by to take him to what was presumably a med cabin.

I looked around and saw the cabins circled around me like an Omega. There was a low blue one with a wave pattern on it. There was a fire-red one with a boar head outside the door. There was even one made of exploding stones.

A nice girl named Monique showed me around.

"So, who is your godly parent?"

"Apollo." She said proudly.

"Cool. Who do you think mine's going to be?"

She studied me.

"I don't really know, but you'll be in the Universal Cabin until then."

The Universal Cabin was a little box sitting stoutly on one side of the omega. It had all the cabin symbols in a ring on the roof, and it was all the colors of the rainbow. It was empty.

"Right now, you're the only unclaimed kid."

I let that sink in.

"But I think it will happen soon, though. Don't worry."

Monique left, and I dropped my pack by the bunk. Then I passed out, delving into the deep void of sleep.

"Hello, Number Three. I've been waiting for you." said a voice

I opened my eyes to see a glowing blue figure, like the one that had knocked out Alex earlier.

The swirls of sparks subsided, leaving a girl with flouncy red curls in its place. Her pale brown eyes glittered mischievously.

"Who the heck are you?" I asked tentatively.

"Pearl Jackson." She stuck out her hand. "I'm your Maybe."

**Aaaaand Scene! Penny seems to have a small temper problem...**

** So, anyone figured out who Penny is the child of? Hmmmm? Not Poseidon, I'll tell you that. Penny's father is…a music professor named Mr. Marco Jackson. **

**Five million points to whoever can figure it out! Who's claiming her, I mean.**

**PS. This fic takes place in a weird AU in which the Nemesis, Hades, Hecate, Hedylogos, yada yada cabins already exist.**

**Please read and review! (:**


	4. Chapter 3-There's no Sugar in this Cain

**A/N So, I think I've figured out this updating thing. I've got practically no time during the week to write except for Saturday, Sunday, and Friday. If I update in the middle of the week it will be a whatever-day miracle. On with the story! Disclaimer: Rick Riordan is awesome. I am not. Why? Because he has the rights to PJO.**

**Chapter 4-This Cain has no Sugar**

**Penny POV**

"What's a Maybe?"

Pearl Jackson smiled. "A Maybe is a person or concept that represents the possibility of you-" she poked me in the shoulder "-not existing."

"Not existing?" My voice went up in a squeak. "Like, at all?"

"Yes. Now, most Maybes disappear after one is chosen to exist, but not for people like _us." _Pearl put emphasis on the word us, like it made me a member of some exclusive club.

"What are we then?"

"Alone, we are just demigods in our own separate universe. But together we are an army."

She pulled something out of her pocket- a silver dragon cuff with twin sapphire eyes. "You can call on any of your Maybes with this-it will auto-activate in a time of distress."

I took the bracelet. "Other Maybes?"

She smiled and raised her arms. I saw a similar silver cuff on her arm. Then I saw hundreds of silhouettes surrounded by blue sparks, and heard a hundred voices-male and female both, say "There are more of us than you could ever imagine."

They vanished, and I woke up.

The silver cuff was on my nightstand, blue eyes staring into my soul.

I stumbled out into the afternoon air, having heard through sleep-clogged ears the campfire call. I staggered towards the campfire partially aided by Monique from Apollo. Apparently dinner had already been served, and I didn't really care. Alex had a bandage on his head from earlier, and he scowled at me when I entered with Monique. Lucy was sitting next to him, and she looked mad at me too. Dang. Knock one kid off a Pegasus, and suddenly you're Public Enemy # 1.

The fire itself was at least three stories tall, blazing a happy orange and flickering brightly. The cabins were all singing, and singing. I felt at home. It was magical.

Suddenly, a white-hot searing wind blew on my back. I looked back-only to see two figures made out of blue sparks.

"Pearl? I whispered. Both forms were silent , though. "Are you there?"

Then they faded, leaving only a bit of a heat wave behind them.

Chiron came up to me.

"Congratulations, Penny Jackson, of the Magic." Here he raised his voice. "Penny Jackson, daughter of Hecate!"

They moved me into the Hecate cabin that very night. The next morning, I walked around, then started laughing to myself about the Ares cabin boar head. Then a kid comes up to me and punches me in the jaw.

Okay, fine. So maybe I was in front of the Ares cabin, making jokes to nobody about that big ugly boar head, but still? This person had no real other incentive!

"What the-" I yelled at him. Then I stopped myself. Feeling around my mouth for bruises, I yelled "What is wrong with you!"

"What's wrong with you? That is the Ares cabin, and we are proud to be warriors. Laughing at it is only a mistake an idiot would make. Once." smirked the kid who hit me. I tried to focus, but my vision went blue. I saw the dragon glowing harder, and saw the two starting sparks from what I assumed were Pearl. I saw a flash of red and a narrowing brown eye behind blue magic.

I smirked right back. "Y'see, Mr.."

"Cain." Supplied the boy.

"Yes. Cain. You don't exactly want to call me that. Got it? Or I will beat you into oblivion."

"You and what army?" Cain grunted. "I don't see any of your little buddies here."

Then his jaw went slack, and I'm guessing my friend showed up.

I stuck my arms out to the sides and yelled a word Alex had taught me in tutoring.

"_Crescere!"_

The blue figure did the same. I now had almost twenty new blue forms waiting for me.

"Try me, Boar face." I said to Cain. The multitude of forms vanished, leaving me with Pearl-whom I could barely see through the blue. Pearl stuck out her arm and let some of the sparks siphon into a glowing ball of blue energy. She handed it to me and then vanished.

Cain was hit with a full globe of energy before he had the sense to run.

_**Ohhhhhohhhhhhh.,**_** say all you peoples, **_**I get it now! Hecate- she's the goddess of Magic! Cool! But how will Alex have it out for her? **_**If you knock someone off a Pegasus…..So, yeah. And Cain-Clarisse, to those who don't know. **


	5. Chapter 4-Why Capture-The-Flag is DEADLY

**A/N PENNY JACKSON IS BACK! Disclaimer: I own nothing because I am a lowly fandom nerd. Rick Riordan owns the PJO universe because he is awesome. Ahem. This time, we find out why Penny no longer likes camp sports in…..**

**Chapter 4: Why Capture-The-Flag is DEADLY**

**Penny POV**

So, does the following scenario sound fun to you?

I was running through a dark forest at midnight, my dragon cuff while wearing at least forty-five million tons of armor with blue fuzz on my head and swinging a sword around randomly after hearing a centaur yell, 'GO!' I was following Alex, who kept hissing at me to buzz off. I didn't listen. Who would listen to Alex? Okay, true, I did during his tutoring, but that was only for one night-then he got mad at me again.

A tree branch cracked beneath my foot and I jumped.

Okay. Maybe I'll listen to Alex.

A low howl of wind ran through the night, and I thought I heard a whisper.

"Huh?" I said out loud. Alex stopped, whacked me in the head with his armored hand, and kept running. I saw the blue sparks begin to surround my hand and forced them back down. No need to blast people so early in the game.

"Alex…" I whispered. He glared at me. "Where are we going?"

"I have a plan."

"Is it a good one?"

Alex turned and glared at me. "I'm a son of Athena." His tone was accusatory.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He stopped abruptly. I nearly crashed into him.

"Penny, stay right here."

Alex ran off into the twilight woods. I heard a rustling noise behind me. Then a small laugh. But then Cain-where did he come from?- hit me over the head with a tree branch, and it all went black.

When I came to, I was in a tree-root prison deep into red territory.

"Where the heck.."

The cavern was painted with the word ARES, over and over again in bright red, and the tree roots had been crudely hacked into- in fact, it was only makeshift, but I couldn't get out of it from this end.

Then I thought about what happened earlier, and I let the sparks out. I collected them into a blue shell around my fist. Then with a huge roar, I punched the bars of the cage. They exploded into blue light, which I winced at, but then assessed my situation. I was deep in red territory-probably deeper than Alex by now.

Alex…who abandoned me to the wrath of Cain..

Deal with him later. I looked around. There was a hill, where Blue was stationed. I could see Cain and his cronies racing to the boundary. Apart from that, I saw another hill, the Red flag, the bathrooms-

The red flag.

Hmmm….

I crept out of the cave and into the dark forest. I looked around- no Reds in sight. They were all probably defending their idiot leader on the Blue hill.

Plucking the red silk flag lightly from the podium it was on, I ran back to the boundary line. As I was crossing, I saw Cain struggling against a group of Blues-Alex and Lucy were among them. Without a second thought, I blasted all of them-Blues included-with pure energy. I practically skipped across the boundary line.

The flag shimmered and turned black, with the golden circle and sparks of the Hecate Cabin. When it waved in the slight thread of wind, I saw magic runes inlaid in silver beneath the black.

"BLUE TEAM WINS!" shouted Chiron.

Cain's face was red with fury.

"HOW IN HADES DID YOU GET OUT OF THE CAVE!"

I smiled at him. "Nothing you need to know about."

He tried to charge at me, but some of his friends held him back. Somehow, he still managed to pull something out of his pocket- an electrified throwing star. It came spinning and whirling at me.

My dragon's eyes glowed and a shield of energy surrounded me. The star was blown to electrified dust.

I rubbed the silver. "How do you suppose I got out, Cain?"

"I'LL KILL YOU! YOU AND ALEX TOO-"

"She's not my friend." Called out Alex, who was helping Lucy take off her armor. Monique started on my straps while I did hers and Cain ranted on.

"YOU WON'T LAST A SUMMER, YOU DAUGHTER OF A WITCH!"

Now fully un-armored, I turned to face him. "You're right, Cain. I am a daughter of a witch. And I rock it."

I turned and walked off, still holding the flag with the Hecate symbol. I settled into my bunk, next to one of my siblings, and went to sleep.

Somehow, I thought I would dream of victory, of winning. I thought I would dream of the sheer exhilaration I had felt when I had blasted that group about to cross the boundary.

Instead, nightmares crept in my window and into my head.

**A/N I just realized I didn't clarify something…Monique is my own OC, she isn't anyone's swap….well, I suppose she could be Michael Yew because they're both Apollos…..hm. I'll have to think about that. As for the question in the reviews-I don't know who Penny is going to be paired with yet-the story is just kind of developing on its own. The match with the most probability is Alex/Penny because I'm a diehard Percabeth shipper. Thank you all for reading and reviewing!**


	6. Chapter 5-Pythons, Hunter, and a Quest

**A/N IT'S A WHATEVER-DAY MIRACLE I'M UPDATING ON A DAY THAT IS NOT SATURDAY, SUNDAY OR FRIDAY! Ahem. So, what is Penny up against now, aside from Cain and the Ares Cabin? If you guessed nightmares, you're right….or you read the last chapter which is what I did :P. Disclaimer: I am a blonde girl. Rick Riordan is not. I don't own PJO. He does. On with the story!**

**Chapter 5-Pythons, Hunter, and a Quest.**

**Penny POV**

In my dreams, I was in a throne room. A being robed in what looked like shadows laughed at me from the heights.

_You are nothing._

I struggled against what kept me immobile.

_The Olympians have plans for you to be used. Do you really want to stay with them._

A girl entered the room and knelt at the feet of the shadow-man. Her hair was pixie-cut and pure black, apart from one blonde streak about four inches from the side of her head inwards. When she opened her eyes, I could see that they were black with a speck of silver in the center of each.

"My lord, I have sent him to the camp."

_Good, Isabelle. And he shall succeed?_

The girl-Isabelle- sneered. "I am sorry, my lord, but I cannot guarantee that. You know H-"

_Quiet! She is here._

Isabelle spun around and hissed ferally. "Where?"

_She is not visible to you._

"My lord….you brought her here?"

_She brought herself….we must watch her. Monitor the boy, and ensure his success….or his death._

The scene began to dissolve_, _and I awoke in the Hecate Cabin with alarm bells ringing around me, and a boy being chased by a huge monster

I scanned the room and found a shelf with weapons, neatly labeled 'Weapon Shelf'. I grabbed something resembling a javelin, a box of Lemonade Mentos, and my shoes, then ran out the door.

When I got to Half-Blood Hill, I was reeling in shock at the…thing that the boy was fighting with a baseball bat. It was a giant serpent, with Celestial bronze scales and narrowed silver eyes. It snorted steam and made another snap at the boy-obviously a half-blood- who lashed at the teeth with his bat. The bat splintered at the end.

I swirled my javelin around and when the big ugly thing opened its mouth again, I threw it in. A sandstorm of yellow powder erupted over us, and both the boy and I began coughing. When my eyes stopped watering, I held my hand out to the boy.

"Penny Jackson, daughter of Hecate."

His eyes widened almost imperceptibly, then were normal. I wondered if anything even happened. He took my hand. "Hunter Nikomedes, and the satyr who found me said something about luck…?"

"Tyche." Alex said, having appeared behind me. "Who was the satyr?"

"Oh, Grover? Uh, he was nice, I guess. We had to split up when that thing came after us."

Alex stiffened behind me, and I saw his fist clenching. Then he relaxed. "So you don't know where Grover is?

Hunter shook his head. His hair was black, like mine but with multiple light brown streaks on the side-I counted six on one side alone. Alex glanced at me and sighed. "Both of you, to the Big House, now."

"Why me?" I protested.

"Chiron was going to have you in there anyways, and he needs to see the video."

"How come I never saw the video?"

"Penny, do you want to see the video?"

"Not really.."

"Then come on." And with that Alex set off, leaving Hunter and I to follow.

Hunter looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "Your friend seems nice."

Both Alex and I whirled on him at the same time. "HE IS NOT MY FRIEND!"

"SHE IS NOT MY FRIEND!"

Hunter shrank back. "Sorry…."

I huffed. Alex turned around.

When we got to the Big House, Chiron was pacing in full horse-man form on the deck. He saw us coming and stopped, eyes narrowed at Hunter. "Who is this, Alexander?"

"Hunter…I didn't catch your last name."

"Nikomedes. Hunter Nikomedes."

Chiron chucked. "Hunter who ponders victory…..hello. Alexander, has he seen enough to forego the video?"

"The video is fine, sir."

"Good. Come inside, Hunter, and you two can wait out here."

Chiron ushered Hunter into the barn, and Alex sat down on the steps. I sat next to him. "Remind me why you hate me."

"Penny, you magicked me into falling off a Pegasus."

"Yeah well, any regular person would have gotten over that by now. Plus, you sacrificed me to the Ares cabin, who are the children of the freaking WAR GOD, so I think we're even. Kay?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "Okay. We're even, seeing as we're both alive. But-" he stopped here to glare at me "We have to promise each other that there will be no more near-death accidents, okay? I save you and you save me."

"Let's shake on it."

We shook, and for the first time, Alex Chase smiled at me.

Chiron opened the door. "I've shown Hunter the film- now I must speak to you urgently."

Alex and I got off the steps, and we walked into the conference room.

"I suppose you've heard about Grover by now."

"Hunter said they'd split up and he lost Grover."

Chiron nodded sadly. "Many of the best satyrs and demigods we have sent out on recruit missions have gone missing, Grover included."

Alex sharply inhaled.

"We need the best of the cabins to figure out what's been happening with the missing agents. Alex, you are the head of the Athena Cabin. Penny, you have proved yourself over the past few days to be the most powerful of the Hecate Cabin, and you both may go on this quest if you wish."

"Yes." Both Alex and I said in unison.

"Who will be our third person?" I asked

Chiron smiled. "Do you need luck?"

Alex snorted. "We're demigods. So, yeah."

"Then I'm your third." said a voice from the doorway. Hunter, son of Tyche, who had his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

**A/N EEEEP I've been planning this chapter for days-couldn't post because of writing camp :( Please read and review-and to those of you who have been doing so THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU MAKE ME FEEL SPECIAL!**


	7. Chapter 6-Just my Tyche

**A/N I had some extra time before swim, so here's chapter six, where we see *hit on the head and gagged by Alex***

**Alex: Mickey doesn't own PJO. SWEET REVENGE!**

**Chapter 6-Just my Tyche**

**Penny POV**

"What?" sputtered Alex. "He can't come with us, Chiron. He-literally-just got here."

"None of the other cabin leaders were willing to come along."

Hunter walked to the middle of the room and sitting down next to me. "What's wrong with me coming?"

"Stay out of this." I warned. When Alex got mad, he got mad. And I mean, sacrifice you to the Ares cabin mad. Hunter sighed, but took my advice.

"Alexander, he seems to know what he's doing, and as long as you have at least one day to train him with weapons properly, then he may go."

About five minutes and a heated argument later, Alex was begrudgingly taking Hunter and I down to the weapons arena for last minute training. Well, technically just for Hunter, but I decided to come anyways.

"Just my luck." I heard Alex grumble.

Hunter was talking about his dad. "I've got some training with weapons-" seeing Alex's murderous glare, he hastily added, "mortal weapons though- knives, stuff like that. My dad used to try and take me hunting, but I was never very good."

"You're named Hunter."

He laughed. "Dumb, right?"

"Yeah."

We lapsed into silence for a little while, until Hunter asked who my parent was.

"Hecate. Goddess of magic."

"So…are you like a witch or something?" I clenched my fist and saw a few blue sparks leak from it. Hunter jumped back in surprise. "What the…"

Alex laughed, short and harsh. "Did Sparks set off?" he said in the same tone of voice. I growled and a few more blue fireworks came off of my hands. Alex raised his. "Hey, sorry, not my fault."

The magic subsided and I noticed Hunter was now walking about five feet away from me.

This was going to be a long quest.

Alex showed Hunter the different ways to disarm an opponent (using me as the dummy) how to knock out an opponent (still me) and how to brutally murder an opponent (I made him use a practice dummy here.) Hunter picked up on things fast, and it seemed like no time at all had gone by when the dinner horn had sounded and we were struggling to get to the mess hall, sweaty and disoriented.

"That…that was fun." Hunter gasped for air.

"To a certain definition of fun." I muttered, trying to catch my breath. Alex walked just ahead of us, panting slightly, but not as much.

When we got to the mess hall, all of us split up- Alex to all his blonde buddies at the Athena table, Hunter to the completely empty Tyche table, and me to the full-to-the-brim Hecates, of every nationality and hair color you could imagine.

I got up and scraped a portion of my meal into the flames.

_Mom, please help me with this quest._

The smoke rose into the air and disappeared.

That night, I packed all of my things-of course, the ones I had systematically unpacked two days ago. What I would need for the quest would be stored in my backpack-a bottle of water, a change of clothes, some extra weapons from the cabinet, my old black leather jacket that still had two holes from Snakezilla's teeth, etc. The most important thing would be stored on me- my silver dragon cuff from Pearl.

I took it off for a second and looked at it. It was a nice piece of jewelry even if you didn't know what it did. I was just glad it didn't activate when we took Hunter to sword practice earlier..

"Sword!" I said, thinking out loud. That's what I had forgotten.

I dropped the silver bracelet on my bed, and began to search the cabinet for a well-balanced sword. I couldn't find one. Groaning, I reached back onto my bed for the bracelet, and felt a shiver of shock run through my arm as my fingers skimmed a sword hilt.

Lifting it up, I saw that it had a dragon head with two sapphire blue eyes for a hilt. Its silver blade had the words 'solum Deum times' inscribed in flowy handwriting, and suddenly I realized it; this was my bracelet.

"Um….how do I get this back to normal?

At the word 'normal' the sword shrank back into the dragon cuff.

"Okay….javelin."

Nothing happened.

"Spear?"

The cuff remained just that.

"Bow and arrow."

After a while, I determined that the cuff only had two commands- sword and normal. I put it on my bunk side table shared with Amy, who was in the bed above me, and fell asleep.

When I showed up for the quest the next day, my dark brown hair was in a short ponytail so that it would stay out of my face. I had even checked it in the mirror-it was the same as ever. Wavy, nearly black shoulder length hair, and blue-green eyes that annoyed me to no end. Alex was lucky- nobody could ever question his eye color, but Hunter was in the same boat as me-the black swirls in his eyes put me off the color at first.

Alex was already at the top of Half-Blood Hill, waiting for Hunter and I. His backpack was identical to mine-black- and he was tapping his foot anxiously. A gold ring hung on his camp necklace, with a light gray stone set in the middle. When I reached him, I pointed at it.

"What's that?"

He rubbed it protectively. "Mine."

Hunter came running up the hill, carrying his backpack-which had red panels down the sides that earned an eye roll from Alex-and a metal circle. When he got closer, I began to wonder if it was a metal Frisbee of death.

"Sorry I'm late." He huffed. "Some Hephaestus kid stopped me on my way up here and gave me this."

"What kid?" asked Alex warily.

"She said her name was Carly, I think."

I was skeptical, but Alex nodded. "Beckendorf. Okay."

"Why?"

Alex shook his head. "Some of those kids just want to play pranks on you."

"Before a quest?" I asked in disbelief.

"Penny, not to put too fine a point on it, but you've made some enemies here."

"Not too many.."

Alex began counting them off on his fingers. "Cain, Lucy, the entire Ares cabin, all the people on the Red team you hit with magic, all the people on the _Blue_ team you hit-"

"I get the point."

He smirked, his blond hair like a halo around his head in the rosy light of dawn. "Thank you."

The moment of Alex's gloating was (thankfully) broken by Hunter. "Should we get going?"

And on that happy note, we set off on our quest.

**A/N There we go! Another chapter down for the count. What will happen on the quest? P.S. Hunter is my own OC no indecision like with Monique. As Alex so nicely did the disclaimer earlier, I don't have to do it now….Please read and review, and if you have done so THANK YOU SO MUCH!**


	8. Chapter 7- Into the Black Hole

**A/N I'm back! Let's start this quest off! Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING. RICK RIORDAN DOES. **

**Chapter 7: Into the Black Hole**

Argus gave us a lift to the nearest bus station, fifty dollars, and a couple of gold coins that any collector would be drooling over. I must have been looking at one funny, because Alex took one out of its handy-dandy carrying case and showed it to me. "Drachma." He dropped it into my hand.

"Cool." It was heavy, and had a picture of the Empire State Building on one side and a woman with a helmet on the other side. We all got on to the bus, and I passed the coin to Hunter.

Hunter pointed at the picture. "Who's that?"

"My mom. Athena." Alex said, glancing at the stamp with a bittersweet expression on his face, both mad and hopeful. "I've never met her." The bus started moving.

"We're all in the same boat, then." I said.

Hunter grinned. "Yeah. The 'Magical Moms' club."

We laughed so hard that it wasn't easy to stop, and when we finally did, I wished we could start again, because the silence that hung over all of us was like a cloud of uneasiness. I glanced outside, then looked back in-the city was racing by, a million miles an hour. I fingered the hem of my Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and noticed a slight tear from sword practice. My silver bracelet was a comforting weight on my wrist, but I was still on edge.

The seating arrangements made me even less comfortable. I was at the window seat-which was perfectly fine- but Alex was sitting next to me- I mean _right _next to me. The bus seats were small, and we were not. If he was sitting any closer he would be sitting on me.

Hunter was behind us-he had a seat all to himself. I'm guessing the whole-weird-streaks-in-hair scared off people on a daily basis, not just here. Suddenly, he popped his head up over the seat, making me and Alex jump. "So?"

"So what?"

"So where are we going?"

Alex frowned as he brushed himself off and sat back down. "I'm not really sure.."

I mock gasped. "A son of Athena without a plan? Scandalous!"

"Spare me."

That moment, a huge tremor shook the bus. My hand began to move towards my bracelet, while Alex's had already shot up to the ring. So it was something special…

Hunter looked at us, eyes wide. "What was…."

Then a hole opened in the roof of a bus, and a girl fell through, her black pixie-cut hair barely ruffled. When she raised her head, I saw two silver specks in the irises of her dark eyes. She stood and drew a sword in one smooth motion, and I knew who it was-Isabelle, the girl from my dream. Then I realized that there was something wrong with the sword-it was pitch black.

"ποια είναι ημίθεος?" Isabelle asked languidly, waving the sword around randomly. I saw a strange symbol on her blade: a circle divided by a vertical line. A scream erupted from one of the passengers, and somehow the girl silenced her with a glare.

Miraculously, I understood what she had said- _which ones are demigods. _Which meant one of three things: she was looking for the demigod recruiters, she was a monster, or we were screwed. I guessed it was the latter.

Alex stood; Hunter and I followed suit. The son of Athena tilted his head at Isabelle, his gray eyes analyzing her-like they had to me the first day I knew him. "ποιος είσαι?" he asked. _Who are you?_

Isabelle smiled in a way that was less sincere and more I-want-to-slaughter-you. I looked at her mouth more carefully and saw her teeth were pointed. What she next said was (thankfully) in English-I was tired of translating Greek in my head.

"I am your worst nightmare."

Faster than lightning, she charged at us and I yelled, "SWORD!"

The dragon blade erupted in time to clang with the black shadow one, and Isabelle's sneer became more pronounced. She pressed me back until I hit something solid-which turned my fear into confusion, as the back of the bus was still a few paces away-and saw a silvery dome that had burst out of the ring at Alex's neck, protecting the people in the back. I saw Alex tap the ring and the force field came down. I kept Isabelle distracted as Alex came up from behind and swung at her with a long sword-he moved clumsily with it, like he wasn't used to something like that-but the moment it touched her, the bronze turned to dust. Alex dropped the hilt in shock.

Isabelle sneered. "I'm also not your typical monster, witch-girl."

I almost froze, but kept fighting. "How do you know who my mother is?"

"Your little firework controller gives you away." A few sparks leaked out and I realized that she was right. I formed a blue fist with the magic and punched her, but nothing happened-the magic all fell away.

Isabelle laughed. "My master could make good use of you as a Chaosite."

"Your master? There are more of you?" This from Alex, who was fumbling for something in his backpack.

"More of us than you could beat, Athena spawn. Though seeing as how your little friend is faring against the forces of one Chaosite, I'd say ten of us could take down your whole camp." Isabelle smiled-no, that's too nice of a word for what she did. More like bared her teeth.

While she was taunting him, I slashed at her arm. Somehow, the silver blade didn't dissolve. Isabelle's mouth was open wide as she touched her arm, fingers coming back red.

"Enchanted silver won't be there forever." She said, shaking her head. I saw the two blonde streaks in it again, and wondered what it was. "And when it's gone, I'll be behind you."

Isabelle cut a hole in the air with her sword and leapt through it. I don't know what it was-terror, bravery, or maybe just sheer stupidity, but I ran through after her. Alex shouted, following me, and Hunter sighed and came too.

But after we were all together, we noticed that she was gone.

"What are you, crazy?" Alex was yelling. "You don't just jump through some random black hole in the middle of something that's practically a murder quest."

"Actually, I just did. And If you recall, you did too."

Alex sighed.

"Do we have another ride?"

This from Hunter, who I had hardly noticed jump through.

"No, but now we do have a location." Alex said.

"How?"

He glared at me. "Did you not hear what the girl said?"

"Not really. I was trying to survive, so, you know."

Alex explained it all to Hunter and I- the sign on her sword represented a chasm, she had mentioned the Chaosites, and apparently that was supposed to mean something. When I said the last part out loud, he rolled his eyes.

"That girl was an instrument of Chaos." It began raining, and I wondered if today could get any stranger.

"The Primordial?"

"Yeah." He looked a bit surprised here- I almost never knew these sorts of things. Hunter raised his hand. "Um, what does this have to do with the quest?"

"Chaos has a little abduction agency going on- and we need to stop them."

And Alex began walking off, his blonde hair plastered to his head by the rain. "Where are you going?" I shouted at him.

"To find the source of Chaos! And if you don't want to come, I'm dragging you anyways!" was his irate response.

Hunter and I looked at each other. I swallowed and hurried after Alex, not looking to see if Hunter followed.

**A/N And the quest is started! Sorry, most of this chapter was filler, setup and crap, but the next one will be better. I PROMISE. Please read and review and if you have done so already thank you SO MUCH!**


	9. Chapter 8-The Ghost Town

**A/N I WAS GOING TO UPDATE LAST NIGHT BUT I COULDN'T SORRY SO I'M DOING IT TODAY YAY! Disclaimer: Rick Riordan is cool. I am a lowly nerd. Why? Because he owns PJO and I don't. Let's see what trouble our heroes get into next in….**

**Chapter 8: The Ghost Town**

I was tired; we had been walking for over three hours and I had no idea where Alex was taking us. My legs hurt from all the exercise, and whenever Alex told Hunter and I to run we both had to hold back groans. Secretly, I thought Alex was trying not to say anything either.

We had left the grassy field that we had landed an hour ago; now I thought we were trying to find a town or some landmark to identify where we were. At least, that's what Alex was trying to do. All I wanted to do was find a motel.

It was a definite fact, however, that I was less tired than the other two; every so often when I thought I was about to fall asleep my dragon bracelet would wake up and jolt me back into the world of the running demigods, for which I was mostly grateful, except in those few moments when I would mentally beg it to just let me be.

Finally we reached a place that looked somewhat like a ghost town; old signs moving back and forth in the wind, the whole place dry, with tongues of red sand licking at our toes like fire. Alex kept moving, looking for all the world like he had every intention of continuing on, when Hunter stopped.

"Alex, what time is it?"

"I don't have a watch."

"Listen, it's too late to do any more of this. There's a bunch of abandoned buildings here; we can camp out in one for the night."

Alex tensed up when he heard 'abandoned building'. "Hunter, that's a really, really bad idea."

"Why?"

The look on Alex's face could have stopped a stampeding horde of elephants. "If you knew anything about this sort of quest in this sort of place, you would see exactly how dumb it is to hide out in a place where not only anything can get you, but you may not be alone."

"Fine, then. We can just sleep out here."

I sighed. "How about we compromise and find a hotel?"

Both of them looked at me. Alex obviously still thought it was a bad idea, but Hunter seemed to be considering.

Alex sighed. "Neither of you are changing your minds, then?"

I shook my head.

He groaned. "Fine. Let's find a hotel."

We roamed through the streets of the dust-filled town for what seemed like an hour. Finally, we found a place-but the strange thing was, the lights were on. There was a warm glow of something that felt like safeness surrounding it. Alex was shaking his head.

"I don't like it." He muttered. "I really don't."

I waved him off. "Alex, it's fine."

The sign read, **HOTEL MYRMIDON: DEMIGODS, SATYRS, AND RUTHLESS HELLIONS WELCOME.**

Hunter tilted his head to the side, black-and-green eyes lost in thought. I thought he was going to say something deep and meaningful; instead, he asked, "What's a hellion?"

"Bad news if you meet one, but not much to worry about otherwise." Alex stared at the place. "Guys, I'm not too sure about this."

"About what?" I said. "The sign says as much as we need to know- it's a safe spot for demigods."

"But the name- Myrmidon- I'm sure I've heard that before."

Hunter rolled his eyes. "Stop worrying."

We walked towards the hotel, albeit slightly warily on Alex's side. The lobby was as brightly lit as it looked from the outside- the place felt the closest to home I had been since Camp Half-Blood, and even there wasn't perfect.

Alex looked like he was about to bolt. "Penny, I-"

"Hello!" a man burst from the back room. "I am Achilles. Welcome to Hotel Myrmidon!"

"Achilles?" Hunter said in disbelief, stepping back from the desk. "As in, _the Achilles_? The guy who fought in the Trojan War?"

The man's smile became a little forced at this. "Yes. And who are you?"

Hunter held out his hand. "Hunter Nikomedes."

I waved. "Penny Jackson."

Alex tried to hide behind the wall. "Alex Chase."

Achilles made a little sound in the back of his throat. "Alex…." He almost purred. Then the moment was gone, and he was back to normal."Welcome, to all of you- oh, dear no, don't touch that." This was directed at Alex, who accidentally bumped into a spear hanging on the wall. His gray eyes widened as Achilles came around the desk and straightened it. "That spear came with me from the old country, Alexander, so please don't break it."

At this point, I should have picked up on the fact he called Alex 'Alexander'….without anyone telling him.

Up close, Achilles didn't look like I had expected- instead of a heavily muscled man with a bandage around his heel, he was a thin, wiry person in his middle ages with thick glasses that you would expect to be carrying around a law briefcase, not running a hotel in demigod-ghost town with spoils of war tacked up on the walls.

I noticed Hunter out of the corner of my eye, looking at the pictures on the wall.

Achilles went back behind the desk and began scribbling something on a notepad. "And which one of you will be paying?"

Alex stepped forwards. "Mortal or _deus_?"

Achilles shrugged. "I prefer drachmas if you have. How many nights?"

"One."

"That will be a coin per, then." Alex dropped three thick gold coins into the man's hands. Achilles smiled as he looked at the money weighting his palms. "Thank you, Alexander Chase." Alex winced at the use of his full name.

Achilles led us briskly through the back of the hotel, talking about the rich history of Greece and Troy. All the while, I felt my danger radar go up. I suddenly knew what Alex meant- there was something wrong with this man, this place.

The tall ex-warrior led us to a room- 495- and handed Alex a key. Hunter went in first, followed by me and the son of Athena. Hunter started laughing as he got farther into the room. "I call this bed!" he said, cackling, then jumping onto the bed closest to the door and laying on it like a starfish. I didn't get what he was saying until I realized that there was only one other bed in the room. There wasn't even an armchair or anything. The room only had two beds, a desk, a small bathroom with a shower, and a lamp.

Oh, no.

Achilles closed the door behind us, and I knew exactly how uncomfortable the night was going to be.

I dumped my stuff on the side of the bed, trying not to think about what would happen later on that night. Alex was in the shower, and I could hear faint humming if I tried hard enough. I glared pointedly at Hunter, who was laying with his hands behind his head, eyes shut, on the bed he had claimed.

"I hate you right now."

"I know."

"Seriously, Hunter. I. Hate. You. Right. Now."

He rolled over to face me. "Penny, how weird would it be to have two male demigods in one bed together?"

"Just as weird as it is for one female demigod and one male demigod to be in bed together." I shuddered just thinking about it.

Hunter relaxed again. "Well, I know you're not really mad, or sparks would be flying." He waved a hand at my dragon bracelet.

I realized he was right. Groaning, I fell onto the side of the bed.

The water stopped and Alex stepped out. His blonde hair was plastered to his head, wet, and he blinked water out of his eyes. "Who's next?"

"Me." I jumped off of the bed and into the bathroom, where I quickly showered and dried off, making use of the provided hairdryer, and when I got out I felt the cleanest I had been in days. Not that the Camp Half-Blood showers weren't nice or anything, but they weren't. Like, at all.

I opened my bag and suddenly noticed my suspicious lack of pajamas. I stuck my head around the door. "Hunter? Alex?"

"Yeah?" they chorused.

"Do you know where my pajamas are?"

Hunter raised an eyebrow. "What do they look like?"

"White tank top, black shorts."

"Nope." He looked to Alex, who shook his head.

"Huh."

I shook out my shirt to get some of the dust and dirt out of it, and did the same with my pants. Then, I left the bathroom. "Night, guys. I'm going to sleep."

Alex looked at the old clock by the nightstand. "Yeah, me too. We've got a long day of planning tomorrow."

Hunter switched off the lights. I climbed into bed and tried to ignore Alex, who did the same..on the other side.

Noises began to pierce the night- howls of wind, flashed of thunder. I swallowed and tried to ignore it.

Alex's hand found mine, which terrified me even more. "It's okay." He whispered under his breath, though he sounded as worried as me. "It will die down eventually. Okay?"

"Okay."

He squeezed my hand. "You're fine, Penny."

I slept sporadically that night. I would randomly wake up, to find that the sound had indeed died down, and Alex was right- but he was a son of Athena. He was always right.

The next time I woke up, Alex was still holding my hand. Both he and Hunter were asleep, and I decided to drift off as well.

The third and final time I woke up, Alex was gone.

**A/N Cue scary foreshadow music! Where is Alex? Why is Achilles so weird? And where did Penny's pajamas go? This chapter was a bit better-I worked on it for two days, so I hope it is. Please read and review!**


	10. Chapter 9-A Circle Divided

**A/N HELLO PEEPS! I have been having about the suckiest day of my life so I'm going to update to make me feel better. DISCLAIMER: I did a swim competition today in a girls category….and I'm guessing Rick Riordan didn't, so therefore I don't own PJO.**

**Chapter 9: A Circle Divided**

Instantly I was alert. What happened? Where was Alex? I slipped on my bracelet and looked towards the door. There was no noise from the bathroom-but there was a sliver of dark gold light spilling out of the slightly ajar door.

_The slightly ajar door._

Oh, no.

I shook Hunter awake. "Dude, we have a problem."

"Huh?" He blearily wiped the sleep from his eyes. "Penny? Where's Alex?"

"That's the problem. Now, WAKE UP!"

Hunter finally got out of bed, and we began to sneak down the hallway. After a while, I started to hear noises. I motioned for Hunter to stop. Closing my eyes, I summoned the magic again. It had been a couple nights since I had the last Hecate-style demigod dream, but I still remembered how to summon a Maybe. I began to think about the blue sparks- exploding and combining into a recognizable form- Pearl.

"Mind doing a bit of spying?" I whispered. The blue sparks nodded at me, then ran off. Hunter sood, awestruck.

"Penny-"

"Shh." I closed my eyes again. This time, when I blinked them open, I was seeing through Pearl's.

She sprinted down the maze of hallways and towards the noises. The sounds soon morphed into voices. Achilles…and Alex.

"Listen, I don't know what you're talking about." Alex said. His voice sounded strained, like he was going over a point he had stressed before. "I'm not the same Alexander, okay?"

Achilles made a noise that sounded like a hiss. "Do you know what that Alexander did to me? And that wasn't even the name he kept. Paris, he called himself." A short, sharp laugh, like a bark. "Do you know what he did?"

There was a ripping noise. Suddenly, Alex came into view. He was sitting on the floor- slumped, more like- hands shackled and chained to the wall behind him. There was a growing bruise just above his left eye, and from what the magic could see, just about to pass out. He was wincing at whatever the ripping noise had been. Then his stormy gray eyes grew wide.

"In the myth, Paris killed you."

Achilles snarled. It was a feral sound, not human at all. "The myth was right."

"Then how-"

"The Master grows stronger every day, demigod." His breath came in a rattle. "The magic the Master possesses is great."

"Magic-like Hecate?"

Achilles laughed again. "The witch is nothing compared to the Master."

"The master…."Alex's face went slack. "You're a Chaosite."

The sparks around Pearl's vision began flickering, and I knew I couldn't maintain this for much longer.

"Yes, son of Athena. I am. And you are attempting to stop my Master." The rage in Achilles' voice had gone down to a lilt which was still strangely terrifying.

"Penny?"

A voice brought me out of my fading magic-haze. Hunter's eyes were wide. "What's going on?"

I suddenly realized I didn't know the way Pearl had run-but that I did know a way to get to Alex. I offered my hand to him. "Come on."

And in a flash of blue, we were where Pearl had been before. Hunter pulled out his knife and I got out my sword, and together, we barged into the room- just before Achilles completed his slash down with the black sword.

The black sword. My brain flashed back to the day before, on the bus. Isabelle had a black iron sword with a divided circle on it. The same marking was on this blade. Alex was right-we shouldn't be here.

Achilles looked nothing like last night. His breathing was ragged and hard, and his clothes hung loosely off his thin frame. Muscles stuck out on the exposed part of his shoulder, and I saw a tattoo that matched the divided circle on the sword…but no, it wasn't a tattoo. It was branded into his skin.

He roared and came after us.

Achilles' first strike was predictable, and I parried it easily. After that, it got harder. Hunter and I both fought as well as we could- one with barely a week of training, and another with barely a day- but we were still losing, and I was weakened further from maintaining the blue sparks earlier. Then Hunter vanished. My thoughts turned to confusion. Where was he?

I heard the clash of metal on metal. I flinched, but Achilles barely blinked.

Suddenly, a flash of gold joined the cue, and Alex began to fight. I tried to hide the smile on my face. Alex was back in business.

Achilles roared as Alex stabbed him in the heel, where I saw a huge, grotesque scar-probably from the first time he died- and he began to crumble into gray dust- not like any monster I had ever seen.

"CHAOS WILL CONSUME YOU ALL!" he screamed. "YOU CAN NEVER WIN!"

"Yeah, right." I scoffed.

Alex looked up from the mound of ash that was once was a hero. "Hey Penny."

"Hey Alex." We both sounded casual. I wanted to laugh.

"You look like death."

"Ditto."

"You think we can go back and shower?" Hunter asked. He looked like death too.

"You know, I think that's a great idea."

"After that, want to go raid the front for info?" I said.

Alex smiled. "I was thinking the exact same thing."

**A/N And we found Alex! And killed Achilles! My day is now substantially better. Now all I have to do is find a bagel…Please read and review!**


	11. Chapter 10-We're Going Camping!

**A/N I'm updating again! Thanks to cityofbones1234 because I showed up in her story yay! PS you should check it out- it's called A Different Kind and it ROCKS. DISCLAIMER: I'm a Hoot Owl. I don't know if Rick Riordan is. But one thing's for certain: I don't own PJO.**

**Chapter 10- We're Going Camping!**

Hunter sat back in Achilles' chair, head tilted back, revealing more brown streaks under the black. "What are we looking for again?"

Alex didn't look up from what he was doing-which was, coincidentally, what I was doing- rummaging through the front desk for information, or anything that would help us. Alex said he already knew where we were supposed to go (and no, he wouldn't tell us) but he wanted confirmation. He sighed. "We're looking for anything that can tell us where the Chaos base is."

So far we had found a love letter from someone named Briseis, a coupon for a massage place about thirty miles away from here, but nothing about a Chaos camp. Alex's brow was furrowed, and he pushed a strand of platinum hair from his face. He was concentrated, and his face looked almost….cute.

No. No. NO. I did not just think that Alex Chase was cute. Pushing the thought from my mind, I kept working, opening another drawer. A black flyer jumped out at me. I picked it up and felt a strange buzzing in my ear- then a burning sensation at the base of my thumb. I looked at it and saw a small red mark like a burn glowing. As it settled to a dull black, I saw that it was the same divided circle symbol as the brand on Achilles and Isabelle's sword.

Shaking my head, I waved it at Alex. "This what you need?"

He plucked it from my fingers. "'Camp Chasm: the perfect camp for your demigod child.' I think we have a match, ladies and gents."

"There's only one lady here." I pointed out.

"And If you think that a demigod kid is a gent we have a problem." Hunter said.

Alex smiled. "And look- it's right where I thought it would be."

"And where might that be, Mr. I'm-going-to-keep-a-secret-from-everyone-else-beca use-I'm-mean?"

He flashed an image of red sands twirled with orange, shadows growing and waning in different depths. "The Grand Canyon. We're going to Arizona."

Obviously, Alex wanted a different response than what he got. Hunter sputtered, "What?" and I groaned, "More walking?"

"Not more walking. There's some more money here, so we can get some train tickets and be out of here by five."

And that, my friends, is how we ended up on the four-thirty train from Columbus, Ohio, going to a little nameless city in the panhandle of Oklahoma that was apparently the closest we could get to the Grand Canyon for seventy dollars per person. As a result of Alex's unwillingness to pay the man anymore than we did, we were rewarded with very small seats in a car with no air conditioning, beds, or places to put bags.

Yay us.

Hunter and Alex were in the seats in front of me. I was behind them, with my bag in my lap, dozing off.

When I opened my eyes again, it was in the Hecate dream room I always saw when I dreamt of Pearl and the other Maybes. But this time, instead of a mass of bright red curls awaiting me, there was...a boy.

"Who are you?"

The boy looked up. He was wearing an orange camp t-shirt-like all the other ones I had ever seen-but his was worn out, like he had been wearing it a while. His green eyes flashed, and he tilted his head at me. I caught my breath.

He looked just like me.

But even worse: He was the boy I imagined the day Alex brought me to camp.

"Thalia?" he asked.

"What?"

The boy squinted. "No, definitely not Thals-she's way taller than you."

I took a step back. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

A flash of blue illuminated the black room and Pearl stepped out. Her brown eyes flashed desperately and she whispered something in the black-haired boy's ear. He frowned. "What?"

She huffed, then whispered it again. Then she snapped her fingers, and a blue flame enveloped him and he vanished.

"Who was that, Pearl?"

Pearl's eyes grew a bit wide. "Umm….a boy?" she tried.

"What boy, and why did he look like my older male clone?"

"Questions are dangerous-let's just say he's your other primary Maybe. Okay? Okay."

I sighed and crossed my arms. "Fine. So, why did you call me here? I was probably going to have some life-changing dream about the quest, you know. Demigod Live! Dream Feed has no reruns."

Pearl tossed me something, which I fumbled with at first, then caught. "What's this?"

"It's a Hecate power gauge. You clip it into the bracelet." I spun the dragon cuff around and saw a spot in the tail with a cylindrical dent and pushed it in, the click it made satisfying and loud in the empty room. Pearl winced, then explained. "The gauge is to measure how much power you're using. I figured you would want it after earlier. There are three levels: green- almost nobody ever uses green, it's too low- used mostly for healing, short shocks, et cetera. Then there's blue, which is what you were using earlier-medium level combat. Finally, there's gold-"

"What does gold look like?"

Pearl closed both eyes in concentration, then opened her hands in a strange position- splayed fingers and heel of hand touching. A yellow-white ball of energy grew in the center, and suddenly it flew out and hit the wall behind me. I stared at the hole in the black wall leading to nothing, the veins of gold fire rippling up and down the obsidian surface.

"High level explosives. "Pearl muttered. I tapped her with a blue spark, and the color returned to her face. "Using gold outside of a dreamstate generally disrupts the body in a major way-"

"Disrupts?"

"Generally in the form of a sudden death."

My breath hitched in my throat. "WHAT?"

Pearl smiled- but it was a grim one. "Think of it as a 'going out with a bang'."

I gulped.

Suddenly my vision got blurry. Pearl noticed the static. "Looks like Demigod Live! Dream Feed is streaming. Bye, Penny."

I couldn't say goodbye- I was gone.

I was back in the room where Isabelle and who I now assumed to be the Master were speaking- but instead of a black-robed man and young girl, there was only Isabelle- and a boy. The boy looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place his face, which was mostly hidden in shadow. They seemed to be arguing.

"Brother, why are they coming towards our position already?" Isabelle hissed. "The base is not ready."

"Listen up, Is. I'm the one who planted the flyer, I'm the one doing all the sneaky business, and they still don't know. Okay? I'm doing the best I can here."

"Well, maybe your best isn't good enough." Isabelle shoved him here, and he stumbled backwards, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "And something tells me that this time, it needs to be, because otherwise, we're both going to die!"

Her voice rang through the room, and I found myself opening my eyes to the train car's gloomy interior with a yelp. The girl in the seat across from me glared with icy eyes. Something about them bothered me, but I didn't know what.

Alex turned around, his eyes clouded- he had probably woken up a bit before me. "Are you awake?"

"I hope so."

He handed me a Nature Valley bar. "I made breakfast."

"You're such a good cook."

Alex smirked at me. "The secret is vanilla." The light caught his hair and made a halo, reminding me of Half-Blood hill when we left..

I unwrapped the bar and began eating, wondering what was next on the quest and praying that there were no more Isabelle drop-ins. I checked the bracelet on my wrist, and looked at the gauge. It glowed with the same light as the eyes- same crystal.

Then the girl who had glared at me earlier stood up. I noticed what was wrong with her eyes- they were almost pure black.

"Daughter of Magic." She rasped, her voice gravelly. "I am here for you."

**A/N *ominous music* Who is the person on the train? Are they a member of the Chaosites? What will happen? Thank you everyone who has been reviewing and if you haven't, PLEASE DO BECAUSE IT MAKES ME FEEL SPECIAL :)**


	12. Chapter 11-I become a Prophetess of Doom

**A/N HELP ME I'VE BEEN ASSIGNED THE WORST THING EVER…..NONFICTION SUMMER READING! *dies inside* I was feeling sad so here's the next chapter to cheer myself and hopefully other readers up. DISCLAIMER: I don't own PJO, okay? STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS YOU'RE SCARING ME I DON'T KNOW YOU!**

**PS: Hey Chris, where's my review? :)**

**Chapter 11: I become a Doomsday Prophet**

The girl began to stagger her way towards me, which shouldn't have been hard- I was the seat across from her and the car was tiny and cramped- but somehow she managed. Alex kept squinting, like he was trying to see her better. His face went slack. "Maia?" he whispered.  
She didn't even turn her head towards him. "The Master demands your capture. I am here for you." Her voice sounded mechanical.

I had already activated my sword and stood, holding it in front of me. My other hand unconsciously groped for my pack- I was not losing this thing to a Chaosite.

The girl twisted her wrist, and a black chain mace appeared around her wrist. It was the exact same metal as the swords- she was definitely a girl from the Chasm, which was verified by the black shirt she wore with the silver letters CHAOS in all caps. The mace began swirling with quick sharp movements of her wrist, and I swallowed. More speed and versatility equals dead me.

Her first swing was hard to dodge, and I got away with a graze on my cheek. The girl scowled and began to twirl it even faster. Alex stood. "Maia, stop. This isn't you."

The girl's laugh was hollow. "Maia is gone. Chaos remains. I will shatter you, imitheos. You will not take down the great Master."

Alex snarled and slashed out at her with his bronze knife, which had appeared out of nowhere. She couldn't parry it with her mace, and I saw Hunter whip something out of his pack. Together we advanced on Maia, until finally I managed to get a good hit on the forehead. The blonde fell to the floor, a bump slowly rising by her brow.

"Okay. How long til Oklahoma?"

I shook my head and watched as Hunter cleaned his blade on his shirt and put it away. It looked bronze, but something told me that it wasn't. I blinked a couple of times.

Alex disappeared into the front, and Hunter and I began to pack up our things. I saw the half-eaten granola bar on the gray metal floor and nearly cried. I turned my sword back into a bracelet and slid it onto my wrist, the silver a comforting and cool weight.

Finally the son of Athena returned.

"We'll be there in about five minutes. Do you think we'll be okay?"

I nodded. Hunter shrugged.

"Good. We're staying then."

The rest of the train ride was spent in almost complete silence. When it finally slowed to a stop,

we hurried off like it was nobody's business. The train station was crowded, and for some reason that put me on edge.

"Hunter, what's your weapon again?" I asked. Hunter blinked his off-green eyes. "Celestial bronze knife, and I've got a few silver-tipped throwing stars from the weapon shelf in Tyche Cabin."

"Are you sure it's bronze?"

"Nobody else has nice happy Enchanted silver like you, Penny." This from Alex. "In fact, so far nobody even knows how that sword even works: we just thought there was Stygian iron and Celestial bronze, nothing more."

"So my sword is special?"

Alex laughed. "A bit more than special, yeah."

"Yay me."

We were still trying to find our way out of the train station. The place was crowded and busy, and a cop was giving me the stink-eye from his post, most likely about my Ancient Greek weaponry conversation in a public area.

"Mortal or Monster?" I whispered to Alex.

He looked over at the man, scanning him from head to toe, taking in and analyzing everything. "Mortal through and through. Penny, stop being paranoid."

The dark surrounding made Alex's stormy gray eyes look even more alive than usual; they flickered back and forth, watching everything from a monotone exterior. It was frightening; he looked like a caged animal.

"We need to get out of here." I looked over at Hunter and realized he had the same expression as Alex. "Anything can happen down here, and we'd be trapped."

"For once, he's right." Alex agreed.

I stared at them in mock horror. "Oh my gods, you're actually agreeing on something! The world as we now know it will end if such events continue."

"Thanks, Prophetess of Doom."

"Anything for my liege."

Alex's smile was dry.

We made our way out of the station faster after we found a directory, which helped immensely; once we stepped out into the bright Oklahoma sun I wondered if we had made the right decision in leaving. At least in the train station there was shade.

Alex went to a gas station convenience store and bought three Cokes, bags of generic gas station chips, and a map. While we were crunching away at good old generic chips, we tried to map out our route, which is kind of hard to do when you only have a rough idea of where you're going and no clue at how you'll get there.

"I think we should go…here." I said, jabbing my finger at a point on the map.

Alex frowned. "No, that's more than twenty miles out of the way."

"But the dots are almost touching!"

Alex began hitting his head on the wall behind him, and Hunter explained why.

"Ohhhhh."

"Okay, so if we go here-" Hunter began pointing out what was actually an acceptable route, and I saw something that caught my eye. "Hey guys?"

"Hmm?"

"How long is the ride?" I began to rifle through Alex's bag.

"Really long-Why are you looking through my bag?"

"Because- ALEX CHASE ARE THERE MY PAJAMAS?!"

"Maybe." He and Hunter shared a grin.

"No, but I was looking for this." I pulled out the mortal money we had left.

"Why would we need that? Penny, all of us are underage, they would never let us rent a car." Hunter sounded exasperated.

"Who said anything about cars?" I pointed to the bike rental across the street.

"Let's go."

**A/N They're nearly there! Who was Maia on the train? Why is Hunter's weapon suspicious? And most important- why did Alex have Penny's pajamas?! Please read and review!**


	13. Chapter 12-The Descent is NOT Easy

**A/N So sadly, there's this thing we have called school coming up, and that mean three things: I will not be able to go to two swim practices a day *cries* I will have homework *cries louder* and I won't be able to update as much. *wails* I've got to try and get as much in as I can now….which means I bring you the next chapter! DISCLAIMER: If I owned Percy Jackson….well, I don't okay, so don't make me cry anymore.**

**PS: Still waiting…(see chapter 11's PS for why)**

**Chapter 12: The Descent is NOT Easy**

We rode in almost complete silence. My thoughts kept returning to the scene on the train- Maia swinging the black mace towards me, the uneaten breakfast lying on the floor. Then I remembered something. "Alex, how did you know the girl's name?"

"What girl?"

"Maia. Blonde, black eyes, bruise from where I knocked her out."

"Our lovely attacker." put in Hunter.

"Her eyes weren't black."

"Are you sure?"

Alex took a breath. "Not originally. That girl was my half sister. Her eyes were black..they were black because she became possessed by Chaos."

"A Chaosite?"

"No. Maia would never..Those Chasm kids may have put their shirts on her, and taken over her soul, but _that wasn't her. _Maia was one of the ones who went out with satyrs to find and retrieve new recruits. She disappeared two months ago."

"So that's what happened to all the recruiters and satyrs- if they didn't comply to the rules of Chaos, they got forcefully transferred to the dark side." I winced. "That doesn't sound fun."

"No dip, Sherlock."

Hunter had stayed silent the entire time.

After about five hours, four different gas stations, two gang jumps, one and a half unconscious gangs and six Vitamin Waters later, we arrived at a sign that said, GRAND CANYON, NEXT EXIT. A smaller sign below it stated, DEMIGODS STAY OUT.

"So what, demigods can no longer go to the Grand Canyon?" I said, trying to hide my growing sense of alarm. But hey, we knew we were walking into a death trap from Day 1. How much different is the theory on paper than it is in reality?

_Well, for one thing, _a snarky little voice in the back of my head muttered, _on paper you won._

_Shut up_, I told it.

We kept riding up until Alex shouted, "STOP!" and I actually looked around at the scenery before me. Great, sweeping red-and-orange mesas looked like they were imported straight from Jupiter, and the thin stream of river I saw beneath us glistened in the sunlight.

"They're probably camped out along the river somewhere." Alex said grimly. "Okay. Weapons check and then we'll go."

"Wait."

The sound of Hunter's voice surprised me, and I turned around, realizing he had not spoken the entire time. "Yeah?"

"We can't go anywhere until I tell you something."

Alex shot me a _I knew it_ look. "Hunter, I already know what you're going to say, and-"

"No, Alex, you probably don't, so-"

"Well, I've got no idea what either of you are going to say, so spit it out!" I glared at them.

Hunter ran a hand through his black and brown streaked hair- there seemed to be more brown now than before- and Alex huffed in exasperation.

Alex said, "Hunter is a spy for the Chaosites." at the same time Hunter said, "I'm a spy for the Master."

"Wow, man, you actually caught on. That means I'm screwed. Yay." Hunter looked down in shame and began to absently draw something in the dust with the toe of his shoe. Part of his hair fell in his eye, and as he swiped it out I noticed most of the black had leached out of it, and when he lifted his head I saw the same for his eyes, which were a deep forest green, black swirls staying at the edges.

"The chaos." The words burst out of my mouth before my theory was even fully formed in my brain. The boys looked quizzically at me. "The energy, I mean. It stains your soul and you-physically. That's why Isabelle had black hair and eyes but Maia didn't- Maia was only being possessed. It has to be of your own free will to have that stuff inside you- and only you can force it out."

"What do you mean?"

I pointed at Hunter, and Alex stepped back. "Okay, you're right."

"What?

I dug around in my bag, gave up, and pointed the mini-mirror on the side of the bike at him.

He stood speechless for a while. Then he sagged. "This means that when we go back down there, they're either going to inject me or kill me, because I lost the Markings."

"Injection doesn't sound fun." I grimaced.

"Neither does death. Tell you what. If we win, you can come back to Camp Half-Blood as a son of Tyche and we'll forget this whole mess. Deal?"

Hunter smiled hopefully. "Deal."

We began to pack up and move out, when Hunter called out again. "There's one other thing you should know."

"Which is?"

He pointed to a huge rock that was in the way of where we were going. "There's an ambush waiting behind there."

"Yeah. I know. That's the only viable spot for one, and they're not just going to wait for us to storm up to the front door." Alex scoffed. "Sorriest ambush I've ever seen though." He pointed at a black knife that lay not a foot away from the rock.

"Okay. Which way are they facing?" I stared at the black knife, trying to find the divided circle.

"Both ways to the side, but not..not to the top." I could practically see the gears turning in Alex's head. "Anybody up for some rock climbing?"

That is how I found myself, not even a minute later, casually walking towards the knife as Alex and Hunter climbed. I thought about whistling to appear casual, then realized that whistling was the one thing a casual person would not do and decided against it.

I heard whispering from behind the rock cease as I got closer, and suddenly my footsteps pounded in my ears. I was making too much noise.

The edge of the rock got closer and closer and I saw Alex give me the thumbs up. I walked past the black knife, towards the backside of the rock- and a shadow jumped me.

A boy with electric blue-and-black hair leapt onto me, snarling. He attacked me with a Chaosite knife, scoring three slashes on my arms before I got out my sword, leapt to my feet and pushed him back into the rock at sword point. Suddenly a red rock fell from the top and knocked him out. Two shadows crossed the sun above me- Alex and Hunter- and we got to work on the other stakeout members, who were soon unconscious as well.

"Lead the way, Lucky." I said after we had dragged all of the bodies and put them in the shadow of the rock. Hunter glared at me, but walked a few paces and stopped.

"This is the Chaos Camp? Where?"

"Not here, Penny. There." He pointed with a long black knife he had acquired from one of the ambushers. The bad news?

Hunter's sword was pointing down.

"We have to climb down the rock?" I squeaked as Hunter lowered himself over the edge.

"Depends. Can those magical sparks of yours fly?" came his irate response.

So, in closing, my friend, let me tell you this: the descent into our inevitable deaths is many things; terrifying, painful, bloody- but it is by no definition of the word easy.

**A/N And scene! Now, be honest here: who else was expecting Hunter to be a spy? *raises hand* Okay, maybe I had planned it like that from the start….just maybe… Remember to read and review, and THANK YOU TO EVERYONE FOR HELPING ME GET TO FIFTEEN REVIEWS I FEEL HAPPY!**


	14. Chapter 13-Wise Boy, Lord of the Ring

**A/N I just discovered that when you're tired in the morning, taper practice is your BFF. :D So I was feeling happy and happy for me equals updates, so here we go, from where the story left us last time. DISCLAIMER: I own this water bottle. I own an apple. I don't own PJO. OKAY!**

**PS: Yo Princess Annabelle, WHEN'S THAT REVIEW COMING, HUH? ****_(See chapter 11 ns 12's PS for clarification)_**

**Chapter 13: Wise Boy, Lord of the Ring**

The red rocks seemed to loom all around me, swirls of dark Jupiter and hard, cold night surrounding us. We had been climbing for a few hours, and the night had come around us. I thought that with nothing around, the moon and stars would be beautiful-but if I looked, I would fall.

"Okay. Jump."

"What?"

"You heard me, Penny." Alex's voice sounded kind of far away.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"No, he's right." Hunter's voice carried up to me.

I closed my eyes and swallowed. The blue eyes of my dragon bracelet began to glow. I was nervous and somehow that was activating the Hecate powers. I forced the magic down. save it for the battle.

Hunter's voice drifted up the stone. "Penny, we don't have all night."

"I'm coming, okay?"

"Today, right?" Alex sounded vaguely amused.

I ground my teeth. "No, Wise Boy, I'll be down in two weeks. You two can go have some fun while I'm up here, though, I won't have demigod sized abandonment issues for the rest of my life. Oh wait, I will."

I closed my eyes and jumped off the rock.

Now, I would like to say I was graceful. It would please me greatly to be able to say that I dove like a swan from the cliff, and landed catlike on my feet at the bottom.

The truth?

I flailed. My hand hit the rock ten times on the way down, and instead of landing on my feet, I landed in Alex's arms. Again.

But this time, he didn't let me go.

We lay under the stars. Hunter said that we would probably lay need a full night of sleep before we took on Chaos in what would probably be the suicide mission we've been waiting for this whole time (yay us, right?) and we were taking turns with watches. I was up first, and Alex was next to me, awake. What were we doing, you might ask?

Talking.

Sorry, no big-bad romance moment. We were just...being friends, I guess. The whole _I'm there for you, you're there for me_ sort of deal. And I have to admit, I like it so far.

"So, what's the deal with the dragon bracelet?" Alex asked.

"What's the deal with your ring?"

"I asked you first."

"I asked you second."

He laughed. "If we get out of this alive, Penny, we need to work on your negotiation skills."

"When we get out of this. Not if."

Alex's gray eyes were solemn. "For once you are absolutely right."

We were silent for a while before he spoke. "The ring was a gift from my mother."

"Athena?"

"Yeah." He took a breath. "After I got claimed, the counselor a started training me more intensely. More weapons, more styles, more ways to beat someone up. And I noticed that having a shield made it easier to do battle. So, I asked my mom for a shield. None of the ones in the camp armory worked, and the Hephaestus kids were still into bribes from the Hermes kids at that point, so unless I could sneak out of camp and buy them some Coke I was out of luck. And on my eleventh birthday, I woke up and this was on my nightstand, with a note. the shield is actually a work of strategical art- while you're under its protection it slows down time and allows you to analyze the situation." His eyes sparkled; explaining insignificant stuff to even more insignificant people was one of his favorite pastimes.

"What did the note say?"

"_Good choice."_

I laughed. "She's right."

He made a _pft_ noise. "Penny, she's the goddess of wisdom. Of course she's right. And now you have to tell me about your bracelet."

I nervously twisted it around my wrist. "There's this thing in Greek Mythology where Hecate is depicted as having three bodies..."

You, my friend the reader, know the rest. Blue sparks, bracelets, Pearl Jackson, everything. I don't want to give you a play-by-play here, okay?

We kept talking, and soon I became tired. Alex pulled me towards him and I closed my eyes, listening to his heartbeat, blissfully unaware of the stars flickering out to be replaced by leaping shadows.

When I awoke, it was to a laugh. It was a sharp laugh, cold and harsh. The clicking of metal toed boots. The movement of a sword sheath. I opened my eyes to see the person I most expected leering over me.

"Welcome, demigods." Isabelle's black eyes were shining with malevolence.

"I don't like you." I muttered. Hey, I was half asleep and my comebacks are generally bad. What did you expect?

There was something cold around both of my wrists. I couldn't see anything but the evil pixie standing over me and the room behind her. My heart rate rose. Where's Hunter? Where's Alex?

"The feeling is mutual, Penelope." Isabelle clapped her hands. "Let's get down to business, shall we?"

I didn't like the sound of that.

**A/N What does Isabelle mean by 'get down to business?' Where is everyone else? And-most importantly- what day is today because JULY 30=THE MIDSUMMER STATION ACOUSTIC AND THE MIDSUMMER STATION ACOUSTIC=BEAUTIFULNESS! Please read and review!**


	15. Chapter 14-Alex Chase, Run

**A/N OCTMS ACOUSTIC AAAAAHHHH! Sorry. I'm kinda obsessed with Owl City. Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING I AM A FANDOM GEEK! Okay, so to pick up where we left off here's…**

**Chapter 14: Alex Chase, Run**

Isabelle cracked her knuckles and kicked me to the side with a metal-toed boot. My cheek hit the floor and I tasted blood in my mouth. I blinked- and saw Alex strapped into a chair, struggling against the black leather restraints. There was a gag in his mouth and he was twisting sharply back and forth. His eyes opened- he saw me, and went very still.

"Alex.." I whispered

"The Athena child will have to go first- I see no other way for you to cooperate, and this is much more painful. " Isabelle walked over to him, her shoes making little malevolent clicks as she went. She pulled a lever at a control table. "Let's begin, shall we?"

It was only then that I saw the…things. There's no other way to describe it. They were the length of Alex's arms, and looked like half-moons from the sides- a cylinder cut in half- and they seemed to have little spikes on them. Then I realized that the little spikes were needles. The plunger was on the outside, and all of them were filled with liquid that looked like shadows fighting against themselves.

My stomach turned. This was how they got Maia, Alex's sister. This is how the Chaosites took all of the people who wouldn't cooperate. They injected them with chaos liquid, which had the power to take over their free will. Chaos was controlling the campers.

Chaos was about to take Alex.

I was not about to let that happen.

_Come on, Pearl, come on!_ I willed the sparks to come. But nothing happened. I looked down my arm at my dragon cuff-only to be rewarded with a feeling of dismay.

The bracelet wasn't there.

"Looking for something?"

A flash of silver dangled in from of my eyes, and I made a motion to snatch at it-after realizing I was chained to the floor and being jerked back. Stars danced before my face, and not even the helpful blue ones. Isabelle threw it to the ground, where it clattered for a few seconds before coming to a rest a foot in front of me.

"It's no use to you anyways- the metal absorbs any magic that you try to use, and if you were normal, your life force. You're lucky you're a child of Hecate, demigod, or it would be eating your life away." Isabelle said as casually as if she was talking about the weather.

This mission had taken a disastrous turn. I couldn't use my Hecate powers, Alex was either going to be killed or turned into a Chaosite slave, and Hunter was nowhere to be found, presumably dead.

_Click. _

I froze. This noise was not the metal boots, or my struggling. This was something new.

It was a button.

The half cylinders began to clamp down on Alex's arms, and Isabelle sneered, her black eyes shining darkly. "The Master wishes to see your..alteration personally, Penelope, otherwise you would be first."

Darkness began to fill up Alex's gray eyes, turning them new shades every second I watched. Suddenly, like it happened all at once instead of a little at a time, the stormy color I was used to vanished behind blackness. I cried out. "NO!"

"He is gone." Isabelle said triumphantly, and she tapped another button. The restraints fell away and Alex stepped out. His eyes met mine with no recognition, and he looked away. Isabelle led him out of the door without speaking.

I cried until night seeped in the windows of the 'alteration' room, and then I cried some more.

Did I stop crying, you ask?

When a hand clamps around your mouth in the dead of night, you would stop crying too.

"Be quiet." The person growls. "I'm going to try and pick your lock, but I need both hands, so you have to be perfectly silent. Okay? Okay."

There was a vibration and the clamps on my wrists slid away. I turned to see my rescuer, who was picking up my bracelet. He turned. Brown hair, black shirt- and dark green eyes.

"Hunter! You're not dead!"

"Why would you think I was dead?"

"Why wouldn't I? But listen. They-"

"I know. They got Alex." He held up the almost full power gauge on my bracelet and snapped it out. "And we're going to get him back."

Hunter explained while we were sneaking around to where the Chaosites kept the 'new recruits'. "SO what they did to Alex was injected him with pure Chaos magic. My idea is, if you do the same thing with pure Hecate or even just godly magic, we could reverse the alteration."

"Do you have a needle?"

"Yeah." He held it up and pushed the gauge into place.

"How did the gauge fill up?"

"My guess is whenever you use it, it siphons off some power so you don't kill yourself with all the raw energy."

"That's helpful. I kind of don't want to die, so…"

Hunter grinned. "I didn't say you did." He stopped. "We're here."

I opened the door, which was-surprisingly-unlocked. There were rows and rows of bunks, and at the end of one- Alex.

He looked perfectly normal- blond hair shifted to the side he was laying on, eyes closed and in REM. But when he turned over, I saw at least ten red dots up and down his arm.

"Where do we give him the shot?"

"Any of the already used points, I guess. I've never done this before."

I breathe in. "Here goes nothing."

Alex's scream was so loud that Hunter had to cover his face with a pillow. When we removed it and the needle, he blinked his eyes at us fast, like he was trying to see better. The darkness was gone.

"Oh gods…" He sat up. "What the Tartarus just happened?"

"We'll explain later. Right now our mission is probably to wake everyone here up without getting killed." I said, gesturing at all the other bunks.

"Too late." A voice said from behind me. I turned to see an army of Chaosites through the door- and the single arrow shot from the crowd headed for my chest.

**A/N OH NO! Will they get out of this? How will they deflect the arrow? I'm going to try and update this one evenly with Silver and Shadows, so..yeah. Did anyone get the title reference here? Please read and review!**


	16. Chapter 15-Light it Up

**A/N I got new glasses! YAY! On the downside, I spent most of this morning and last night in the emergency room with my parents- my dad got injured in a place where he had a pre-existing condition :(. So, now I'm at home, I have the song Feels Good at First stuck in my head, and I have a new chapter up. Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. All I own is some grape juice and this peanut butter cookie..mmmm….**

**Chapter 15: Light it Up**

The arrow came at me in slow motion. Not even like in the movies, where it actually doesn't- this was real. Then I noticed the gray shimmer in the air- Alex's ring. Wise Boy had come through- and fortunately, I already had a plan spinning in my head.

I looked down at my wrist- there it was. The blue dragon eyes glowed, and I remembered what Pearl had said- there are more of us than you can ever imagine. Right now, we needed an army. And I could supply one.

The dragon was to regulate how much power I used, and the gauge was for what level. Okay. I got that. So if I used gold, I could summon more?

Worth a try.

The shield hummed out, and I ripped the bracelet off- it was only going to take off power. Then I concentrated.

Light. Power. Gold. Sparks. Yellow. Energy. Explosion.

I didn't notice until later, but I began to rise a few inches off the ground. Some source of light from behind me began to illuminate the mob surrounding the initiate rooms. No, wait- I was the source of light. I was glowing.

Crap.

I saw hundreds of spark-people- maybes- appear, but instead of blue, they burned like each particle of them was fourteen karat. I did it. But now I couldn't stop. It was like what Isabelle said would happen if a mortal touched the metal- it would burn their life away. That's what the magic was doing- it was eating at my insides, begging to get out.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a gold figure step into Hunter- and I mean, into. As in, inside of. Hunter started, then I couldn't see him anymore. He had charged into the fight.

The figured began doing this all over the place, jumping into people- then I realized it acted like an antidote. The Hecate power was flushing the chaos out, making their influences godly again. All of the kids who were lying in the beds, needle pricks on their arms, rose up, grabbed a weapon/magic item/anything they could get their hands on and joining the fray.

We were winning. At last, the mission may have been for something.

But even as we were driving back the enemy, I knew there was something wrong. That feeling intensified when my light faded. I dropped to the floor, coughing- there was a drop of blood on the floor. I coughed again, and two more joined it.

Alex dropped to the floor beside me. "Penny?"

I couldn't speak.

"Penny?" I'm sure his eyes were cloudy with worry, but I was too tired to look up and see. I coughed again, and this time my breath ended in a rattle.

Suddenly, all the lights- no matter how bright or dim- went out. A roar went up from the Chaosites, and they began to push us back again. Suddenly the brand at the base of my thumb throbbed and I knew what happened.

Chaos was here.

A dark cloud appeared above us, and Isabelle stepped out. "I was right, milord." She sneered triumphantly. "I knew the tracer was a good idea."

Tracer?

_There will be time for acknowledgements later. _A man stepped out from the cloud and it vanished. The man had black hair streaked with white, and his skin was blacker than coal. His eyes, however, burned like silver fire. He waved a hand and both Alex and I were shunted into the wall by an invisible force. Hunter landed a few feet away from us- he was battered worse from the fight.

_Now we have these demigods to take care of. And, Isabelle, there is no cause for congratulation here; your brother has failed one too many times._

The color drained from Isabelle's face. "Sir, he succeeded in bringing the demigods here-"

_Which was their quest, but he seems to have joined forces with them. Isabelle Nikomedes, unless you present me with at least one piece of evidence that proves otherwise, Hunter will die under charge of being traitorous to the Master._

The evil black-haired pixie was speechless, and I couldn't blame her- if I had any breath left in me I would be too. Hunter and Isabelle- siblings?

Chaos vanished and I thought that we had won, until I realized that I was being blindfolded and thrown somewhere. Alex's arm cracked across my head as he was thrown in too.

"Leave 'em there to rot, I say." one Chaosite cackled, and something above us shut.

After a while, we had worked off each other's blindfolds and gags. "Can that ring do anything but turn the world into a low-budget Matrix knockoff?"

"What?"

"Slow-mo."

"Nope, but from what you say, that bracelet of yours can."

"In order to flush everything out of those people I had to harness gold power. I couldn't do that with the bracelet on."

There was a clinking noise. "I picked it up."

"WHAT?"

"Shh." He put his finger to my lips, and in the darkness his eyes glowed. Something cold was pressed into my hand. "If you think you're up to it, want to light this place up?"

"Why would I set this place on fire?"

"I mean, make it like, flashlight mode. When we get out is when we start burning stuff."

"Okay, that's a good plan."

I could practically hear his smirk. "I know."

"Don't get a big head just because I said that, Wise Boy, I don't like regretting that I said something."

"I already have a big head, Sparky."

I growled and a couple of blue twinkles came out of my closed fist.

Alex laughed. "See? Flashlight mode."

The dragon's eyes glowed, and I could see more clearly. There was a metal ladder about two feet to the right of where Alex was, and we were in either a bomb shelter or a dungeon. The hatch above us had no lock, and could probably open from the inside.

"Not super security." I hoisted myself to my feet. "Are you ready to blow this pop stand?"

"Yeah. Let's go light it up."

**A/N Aaannnndd….scene! Sorry madmad01, I stole your nickname for the story :D Ahem. What will happen to Alex and Penny in the bomb shelter/dungeon? Where is Hunter? And- most importantly- am I willing to get up at 4:30 AM every day to do swim practice at 5:45? Okay, I can answer that: NOOOOOOO. But hey, it's a pending question. Please read and review!**


	17. Chapter 16-The Two That Got Away

**A/N Hi all! So I'm at swim camp for the week (it's actually pretty cool so far) and that means I can't update as often. :( Aa soon as I get out I'll do multiple updates, I promise. DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN PJO OKAY STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS I DIDN'T PUSH HIM HE FELL.**

**Chapter 16: The Two That Got Away**

It took almost thirty minutes to get the hatch off; Alex insisted I go first, which was all nice and ladylike and proper until you added in the variables that I was tired as heck from all that magic earlier, he was stronger than me, and I had no clue how to open the thing while he was the son of the wisdom goddess and could have figured it out in seconds. No, it wasn't precisely the best plan, but hey. It ended up working after all.

"Penny."

"Yeah?"

"I don't have a weapon."

"They took your knife?"

"The sheath is empty. I can't find it anywhere."

"Did you drop it while we were down there?"

"No." The urgency level in Alex's voice was building. I heaved a sigh. "Sword."

"Saying the word won't help-" Alex cut off when I handed this the dragon sword. "Why does it say 'Fear God Alone' on it?"

"It came with it? Stop asking questions, you'll get us caught." I allowed a small sphere of energy to grow in my palm. "Do you know where they're keeping Hunter?"

"No, but aren't the other demigods our priority?"

"Most escaped in battle."

"Good. Now all we need is Hunter and the ones who stayed."

i swallowed. "Then we blow up stuff?"

"Then we blow up stuff."

That was easy enough to follow, right? Get Hunter find the other demigods/satyrs/random magical doodads and set of explosives. Simple, right?

Wrong. A million times wrong, so wrong that if I could go back in time to that exact moment I would slap myself, say "NOOOOOO." and wink out of existence. That, my friend the reader, is precisely now wrong I was.

But more on that later.

Alex and I were running through the moonlit camp, swerving to avoid buildings and such. The danger sensor in my brain began ticking.

click. click. click.

Farther and farther we ran, and I realized that we were going to the large main building in the center of the camp. Alex was smart; I would have just tried the initiate cabin again.

clickclick. clickclick. clickclick.

Almost there. We were only about twenty feet away. Ten. Five.

clickclickclickclickclick...my danger meter was going off the charts crazy. I looked around wildly, a chunk of black hair falling in my face. Nothing. I brushed the hair away and ran faster.

clickclickclickclickcleeeeee

The clicking turned into a highpitched whine.

We reached the door of the building-to find that it was a temple. Alex reached for the door, only to have it swing open, opened by none other than Isabelle Nikomedes. " They have arrived, milord." Her voice held none of it's usual malice; it was oddly flat and emotionless.

_Good_.

The man-Chaos-replaced Isabelle in the doorway.

_If it isn't the two that got away_. The man's voice was vaguely amused. _I thank you for being perfectly punctual; you have arrived right on time. Though, indeed, it would be no fault other than mine if you were late._

"What do you mean, right on time?"

_For the ceremony of course. I do encourage you to come in; the proceedings always go so much better with someone there to watch their comrade die._

**A/N Sorry about length( or more appropriately, lack thereof) but I'm tired and have to get to sleep okay? I was nice just to update at all, so yeah-plus I'm using my iPad which makes something that I could have written in ten minutes take forty. Please read and review, and to all a good night!**


	18. Chapter 17-The Perfect Setup

**A/N Has anyone seen the new story yet? That one's going to be fun to write... But back to this one for the time being. DISCLAIMER: If I was Rick Riordan...no. I'm not, so just leave it at that.**

**Chapter 17: The Perfect Setup**

Chaos ushered us into the room; well, ushered is a word for it. More like, waved his hand and propelled us into the room with an invisible pushing force like what was used earlier to knock us into the wall at the initiates rooms.

There was a shadowy figure tied up at the front of the hall. It made a noise as we drew nearer, and lifted its head a centimeter.

It was Hunter.

"We're dead." Alex whispered. His gray eyes were practically clear, and I swore I could see the gears whirring and clicking in his brain. Meanwhile, my danger-o-meter was going into hyperdrive-even Alex didn't think that there was a way we could save hunter from this.

_Any last words, demigod spawn? _Chaos sounded delighted, like murdering half-blood teens was the highlight of his day.

A light went on behind Alex's eyes. He scratched the back of his head, then walked stiffly up to Hunter, whispering something in his ear. I thought I saw a flicker of hand motion too, but it was just my imagination.

Or was it?

I couldn't say anything without freaking out at this point, so I stepped back and tried to close my eyes. It didn't work. They kept opening of their own accord, and it was not a sight I wanted to see.

_Let us begin_. Chaos said. He motioned for Isabelle to do something. She didn't move, still stiff. The man growled. _I said, let us begin_.

He raised a hand, and she set to work robotically, bringing The Lord of Chaos a knife. More specifically, the knife Alex uses- Celestial bronze, worn out handle, and wicked sharp. I heard the beginning of a growl begin to emanate from Alex's throat.

Chaos turned to him. _I thought it would be appropriate for him to die by the hand of the son of Athena, but as he has fallen out of control, his weapon will have to do._

"You sadistic-" Alex said in a low, angry voice, but I clapped my hand over his mouth.

"Shut up."

Chaos laughed. _For the son of wisdom, you are not very wise, Alexander. My, my, much too impulsive for your own good._

If looks could kill, Chaos would have been dead right then. The glare Alex gave him, however, could not compare to the pain of what happened next; still angry at me for silencing him, Wise Boy bit my hand.

I pulled it away, yelping.

Chaos didn't even pay attention, instead focusing on the mainly limp figure before him. He drew back into perfect throwing stance- and the knife was flying.

I screamed then.

But the knife never reached its mark. A gray bubble of pure magic sent the knife flying backwards, out of control, and-somehow- spinning into Alex's hand. He tossed me the silver sword back.

Of course- the ring. When Alex scratched his head, he took it off. Wen he went up to Hunter, he pressed it into his hand. And when the knife came at him, it was deflected.

The perfect setup.

I ran over to Hunter and started cutting off the ropes holding him to the pillar of the hall. Meanwhile, Alex and Chaos were duking it out behind me, chasm magic against a sixteen-inch celestial bronze knife, but somehow, Alex was pushing him back.

The last rope was slashed through as there was a great howl from behind us- I spun around and saw Chaos disappearing in a great cloud of darkness.

"We did it, guys." Alex said weakly. He coughed, dropping his sword.

Then he collapsed.

When Hunter and I had revived him sufficiently, all three of us walked outside. Most of the Chasm Camp was in shambles- apparently, the released initiated had taken our idea of blowing up stuff and put it to action. Half of the buildings no longer had roofs, and there were still some small fires being put out by the remaining initiates, who stared at us oddly...a mixture of awe and fear.

Then one broke away from the crowd. He walked towards us wit a bit of a limp, and I wondered if he was injured. Then I realized it as he got closer: satyr. Definitely satyr.

But Alex seemed to know him. "Grover?" He tried to stand up without Hunter and I supporting him, and promptly fell again.

"Sorry, he just collapsed and we don't have any ambrosia." I called out apologetically.

"Dude, I've got some." The satyr ran over and pulled out a plastic bag with yellow squares in it. He handed one to Alex, who broke it in half and swallowed.

"Thank the gods." The satyr-Grover-breathed. "Alex, I thought you were dead!"

"Ditto. Where were you?"

"Here...they kidnapped me on his mission." Grover pointed at Hunter. "Who are you two, anyways?"

"Penny Jackson, daughter of Hecate."

"Hunter Nikomedes, son of Tyche. PS. Don't get Penny mad."

"Grover Underwood, and duly noted." Grover scrutinized me, then his face cleared. "Okay everyone. Time to get back to camp."

**A/N Yay, everyone is alive! I'll update this one again soon, but the next update will be Track Star cuz I'm having fun with that one. Thank you to all my reviewers so far: JuneXDay forever, seaweed brain, PJandLGequalsLove, Alia Daywood, aslongaswe'retogetherPA, The-Mixed-Up-Girl, Lily Carlier, cdunn30645, Wolfman613, cityofbones1234, AmericaLovesMaxon, blueconverse333, and everyone who had reviewed as a guest- You guys make me so happy when I look at the reviews! :) **


	19. Chapter 18-The Master Of Magic

**A/N HELLO! GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS? It starts with a P and ends with a ercy Jackson's Birthday. And I would have updated awhile ago, but my dumb word processor deleted my chapter. So, here we are, and...yeah. DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN PJO KAY?**

**Chapter 18: The Master Of Magic**

What I consider a grand entrance: opening the double doors of the big house with an army of newly released demigods, and saying, 'Miss me?' or something cool like that. What I do not consider a grand entrance: having a ex-chaosite son of Zeus lightning-travel (sounds cool but hurts a lot) you into the middle of camp, and be hurled, smoking or ablaze, into the grassy area in the middle. We were tired, electrocuted, and hungry.

We were home.

A couple girls from Hecate and two boys from Apollo ran over and began to tend some of the more serious wounds. The Hecate girl snapped her fingers and medical supplies appeared on tables behind us. The whole camp was taking on the role of medic for their lost siblings-but I had done enough. I staggered back to the Hecate cabin and fell asleep in a magical haze.

But no magic that I possessed could keep away the dreams.

"_Hunter?"_

_I was running through a dark forest. The moon was obscured by dark clouds, and a feeling of uncertainty hung run the air like a thick fog. I wanted to stop running, but I knew that if I did, _they_ would get me. And gods only know who _they_ were. I tripped over a tree root, but got up and kept going. "Hunter?" I called again._

_"Stay back, Penny."_

_I stopped running. "Hunter, are you okay?" He was standing in a moonlit clearing, back facing me. He had a silver knife in one hand and the other was clenched in a fist. He whipped around to face me, usually pretty features twisted in an ugly snarl._

_"I said, STAY BACK!" He reared back his hand-but I never draw him throw the knife. It struck a tree behind me, quivering. My gaze was focused on his eyes._

_They weren't green anymore._

_He brought his hand back again, but this time, dropped the knife at my feet. I saw that it had my name engraved into the flat-Penelope Jackson in curly font. _

_"Penny...what have I done?" Hunter whispered._

_And then he was gone._

_"_Penny?" Alex's voice was the first thing I heard when I woke up. His gray eyes were sparkling. "We did it, Penny."

I smiled at him, but in the back of my head the dream was still running. "We did."

"Our first ever quest..." He said dreamily.

"Hold up. You said our? And first?"

"Yeah. Sparks, if I ever have to go on another little 'adventure' like that, I'm bringing you with me. And you need me too. I don't know if you've noticed, but you're a bit impulsive."

I punched him. "Am not!"

"You just punched me."

"So?" I looked around a bit. "Alex Chase, are you in the Hecate Cabin?"

"You're just noticing this?"

"I TOLD ANNA NEVER TO LET YOU IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!"

He smirked. "I'm a son of Athena. I always have a plan."

Alex got up from the chair next to my bed. "Chiron told me to tell you that he wants to see us in the Big House at noon, which is" he checked his watch "half an hour from now. See you soon. Oh, and please put on something different; I don't think you want to go out in public wearing that."

I looked down at my shirt and yelped- it used to be a plain smoke-colored shirt, but now it was peppered with burn holes that were ash-like around the edges. When I looked up, Alex was gone.

After a talk with Anna( who said she'd never do it again) I got dressed, and at noon I went to the Big House and had to retell the whole tale of our quest to all the camp leaders.

"What do we do about the rest of the Chaosites? The ones that escaped?" the leader of the Nemesis cabin asked.

Chiron sighed. "It is not a threat yet; unless Chaos begins to grow stronger, we do not have a problem on our hands."

And that was that.

I walked off into the forest after the meeting. Somehow, I could sense that it was the place I had esteem in my nightmare, but a different part. Hunter's tortured face kept flashing through my mind- and then him dropping the knife- _what have I done, what have I done _echoes in my head.

_What has he done? Oh, Penelope. You will find out soon enough._

I spun around- and there he was. Chaos. In Camp Half-Blood.

Drawing my sword, I snarled. "What do you want?"

Chaos laughed. _What I want, you cannot give to me_._ Put that away, please_- my sword flew from my hands-_ weapons disturb me._

"Two can play at that game." I said, and snapped my fingers. The sword came flying back at me, nearly impaling me in the process. Chaos laughed again.

_But my darling Penny, the game is all mine to control. I am the master of magic, and you would do well to remember it_.

"Yeah. Right." I scoffed. "You may be a Primordial, and all-powerful and all that, but I am the only magician here, bub. And _you_ remember _this_."

And I let a sphere of blue magic grow in my hand until it shot out on its own, enveloping him in light. Then he was gone, and I ran off to find either Alex, or Chiron, or Hunter, or anybody. They needed to be warned.

This isn't over yet.

**A/N I'm kind of sad...this may be the end of the first 'book'. If I and any more chapters to this one YAY, but a heads up: I will be continuing this storyline, and the next one is tentatively titled Penny Jackson and the Garden of Eternity, so...yeah. Thank you all for reading and reviewing! And-most importantly- HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR PER-CY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!**


	20. Author's Note

**Hey everyone! **

**Chapter 1 of the next 'book' is up- ALEX CHASE AND THE QUEST FOR ETERNITY! You'll notice I changed the name a bit..but the storyline is still the same. That's why I love writing...you almost always know what's going to happen next. Hopefully I'll see you guys in the reviews, but if you don't like the continuation, I'm fine with that too *goes and sobs in a corner* yeah, perfectly fine. Oh, and one other thing- Alex will be the main narrator for the next story, except for small lapses like in chapter two here. That about wraps it up, then...thank you everyone for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following, and I hope you'll continue!**

**Thanks, **

**OnAngelWings**


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